Jonathan Cane

Published by Wits University Press, Civilising Grass offers an extended treatment of new materialisms, ‘anti-social’ queer theory, whiteness though the art historical medium of the landscape. By examining the aesthetic representation of lawns, the book argues for a consideration of landscape as a subjectifying process in which human and nonhuman emerge together.WITSCITYINSTITUTE, JOBURG 2019

Cruising as archiving; archiving as cruising. Published by Ellipses: Journal of Creative Research this digital queer archive is an ongoing research project that collects oral histories from LGBT people over the age of sixty.WITSCITYINSTITUTE, JOBURG 2019

On Un-Remembering or Forgetting Parties or We Drink and Forget or Against Doris or Playing Footsy Under The Table or Is That Tetrapack of Aquadiente in Your Pocket or Un-Focused Groups or Let’s Just Getting Fucked Rather. We drank ‘Guaro’/Aguardiente with young, smart, gay ‘boys’ and ate arepas and potatoes and talked about violence and trauma and nothing and cried and staggered home.CAMPOSDEGUTIÉRREZ, COLOMBIA2013

The bypasses occupy a central place in the geography of Joburg and has very seldom inspired anything in the people listening to 5 FM on it, eating vetkoek under it or peeing against it. With Zen Marie& Eugene AriesSPIERCONTEMPORARY 2010 and ARCHITECTUREZA 2010

When I was a small boy was ashamed of being gay. I knew I ought to be ashamed because of the things I made when I played: little houses, some- times with lighting, sometimes elaborate, often with custom furnishings, but always greeted with sadness and/or violence. The materials differed—sand, cardboard, Lego, paper, fabric off-cuts—but the feedback from my community seemed consistent: making homes is not what boys do. What I’m ashamed of now is that I stopped. I de-skilled myself and sought refuge in the secret (evidence-less) domain of words and ideas.FAAPSAOPAULO 2014

We were bored. We wanted to do something. Everyone else wanted to do something but didn’t. We did. We founded The Supreme Guardian Council and invite the design/craft industry in Joburg to contribute to thematic exhibition slash parties. Don’t take art too seriously. Don’t take art seriously at all. In fact: FUCKART. With Kerry Friend. THESUPREMEGUARDIANCOUNCIL, 2007

This is a film by two lecturers who make their living from theory.
These students are their students.
This examination is their examination.
With Zen MarieSPIERCONTEMPORARY, 2010 and LOWAVEIN/FLUXDVDSERIES, 2013

Novelist Kathryn White and myself opened The Mess (2010-2011), a so-called pop-up restaurant, in the pretty-dodgy, often dangerous, downtown Johannesburg, because, (a) no one had done that in South Africa before; (b) we were bored (even though Kate wrote and consulted in advertising, and I lectured full-time); (c) there were NO good restaurants in Joburg, at all; (d) I cooked (much) better than most people restaurants; and the clincher (e), we felt, in all earnestness, that we have some good ideas to share; we thought we knew how people should eat.

It wasn’t really a pop-up restaurant—no matter what the press thought. We served dinner once, sometimes twice a month, with no formal kitchen, in the street, on the roof, in a gallery, with no liquor license; we smoked, drank, flirted. At times patrons were rude to us (when people pay money for food they are not quite themselves), at times, we were rude. It was a mess. (That’s not a pun; we chose the name because of the double/triple entendres.) We served way too much meat; actually we served way too much food. Period. And because no one in South Africa uses words like ‘food curating’ and ‘eating design’, we said, we were running a ‘restaurant’. In the end, (a) we got ‘famous’; (b) we taught up a bunch of my uni students to cook, well; (c) we made 7,50 Rand (=0,5 Pounds) profit, for real; (d) we lost all faith in: (d.1) each other, (d.2) Food (with a Capital ‘F’), (d.3) meat especially, and (d.4) ‘fame’; and (e) we got burned (that’s a pun).